What Will Happen in 2004? Safe Predictions
for the New Year and Years to Come
by Jerre Skog

www.dissidentvoice.org
December 31,
2003

Nostradamus
was a man who could write a sentence in a way that could apply to an
unlimited number of occasions, events, times and persons. If you really try,
you can read anything into one of his prophesies. On the other hand
Nostradamus was cunning. Most things he foretold were perfectly logical even
if outrageous. And old Nosty was nothing if not a shrewd observer of human
psychology.

George W. Bush, Paul
Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney just aren't of that caliber. Those fumbling
soothsayers told the American people and the world how the Iraqi people
would embrace the "liberating" American forces, covering the soldiers with
flowers, wetting their faces with kisses after they had won the war and
settled down to occupational oil-stealing duties. Now it turned out that the
flowers were more of the exploding device type and the kisses became more
like slugs from AK47s. Suspicious individuals might believe that Bush & Co
knew this all along -- they just lied -- but let's be generous and credit it
to stupidity. The only ones who will write poems and symphonies for the
"liberators" will be the new rulers, handpicked for obedience and
corruptibility, by the invaders. Mr Ahmed Chalabi must be overwhelmed.
Convicted criminals of his stature usually can't get a job even at
McDonald's, much less as president. But it's nice work if you can get it and
you can get it if you have backers who got it because they got it from
friends in the Supreme Court.

So far not only the future
but also the present and the past are either eluding the American ruling
junta, or else their combined intellectual capacity -- OR their combined
personal integrity -- is below allowing for the correct description of
reality. We can expect to hear the comments from Bush "the Sillier" in 2004
to be on the same level as those in the year gone by. Not one digit correct!

So, as a service to all
those who want to know what will really happen next year (and further on),
here's a short glimpse. Out of necessity, details will not be given, so as
not to induce investors to run and sell or buy certain stock, but the
probability that in general the following things are going to happen can be
estimated to be between 65.37% to 99.99% -- many predictions are sort of
surgical swipes. Many of them will no doubt come true in 2004 but some
others might take a few years longer. Some might even not come true! The
predictions are conjecture but based, I hasten to add, on human and
specifically American psychology, observed strong trends and previously
demonstrated and solidly evidenced developments that show no signs of
slowing down or reversing.

Be the first to know!!
Don't follow CNN! Don't read CIA briefings!!

Just read this:

Since much of the world
follows US trends, voluntarily, indoctrinated by US movies and TV shows or
forced by economic and military necessity (bribes and bombs), this will be
mostly about America. Occasionally some other areas may be specifically
mentioned. What happens in the US usually hits Europe and other places in
the world with a delay of 10 to 20 years -- the speed depends on so many
factors that it's impossible to determine each variable and its ultimate
effect on a specific area. What is important to know is that nobody is safe;
there's always a McDonald's or a FBI/CIA agent lurking somewhere in the
shadows. Knowing the course America takes aids the strength of the
resistance against it. The one factor that the greedy baddies always forget
is that human pride, power and integrity still exist.

Let's take it bit by bit
like a pharma company swallows its competition.

The Markets and Economy.

Business will move forward in its old tracks, meaning more, new and bigger (con)fusions,
amalgamations, buy-overs, steal-overs and friendly gobbling up. All of it
accompanied by lower wages for those who do the job and excessive salaries
for those who try to figure out how it could've been done when they were on
holiday, the CEOs. The number of independent small businesses will shrink
with a percentage even higher than the tax cuts for Bush's millionaire
friends. If not in 2004, very soon; we can expect 91.83% (in round figures,
give or take a few 0,000001s) of all industry, restaurants, shops, service
establishments, health services, police departments, prisons and
universities to be either owned or run by big corporations, possibly on a
franchise basis. The military forces under Halliburton control (and profit)
will go up at least by 18.3% and will have to accept wage cuts and inferior
material to speed up hardware turnover. The forces under Halliburton command
will receive their salaries in old Iraqi Dinars (there's a lot of those
found in Iraq and the picture of Saddam can be manipulated to look like
Cheney).

In a number of big
corporations some CEOs will fiddle the figures, massage the statistics and
cook the books to secure a heretofore unheard of number of millions for
themselves, and after delaying tactics (until all the courts are run by
McDonald franchises) nobody will do hard time.

The Dollar will continue
its losing game against the Euro, thereby giving the world a glimmer of hope
for the future as the printing of Dollars will no longer ensure American
military superiority. More of world trade, including oil, will be done in
Euro. The housing and loan bubbles will be close to bursting but will hold a
little longer. Public attention to the disastrous economy will be diverted
by patriotic speeches, flag waving and allegations that Gambia, Sudan and
the Cayman Islands have weapons of mass destruction.

The judicial and
penitentiary systems
McDonald's will in due time take over the courts and prisons, franchising
areas where turnover is too slow. McCourts will decide who is guilty,
McSentence will be passed and the guilty will be sent to McJail. In Texas
and some other backward areas, selected black and poor white convicts will
be served a Happy Meal before they get to meet McDeath. In jails the
uniforms will in the future really be uniform. Same size all! Prisoners will
be expected to serve as long as there are vacancies and do their time in a
way that is most profitable for the company. If death row is empty,
prisoners are expected to volunteer without pay. Lawyers will only be
allowed arguments from a menu of 18, the 793-page work manual regulates the
judge's decisions, and to speed up procedures each case will be allotted 6
min and 27 sec. before a verdict will be passed from a menu of the 12
top-sellers.

The Administration
This is an area where the predictions are 100% failsafe. At least 49 times
the administration will refuse to disclose information to the US public or
international community, invoking "national security" -- meaning that it's
just too incriminating for the administration. Karl Rove will, once a month
at a minimum, dream up a speech or a scheme which Bush will repeat, not
understanding the meaning but presenting a patriotic image convincing at
least 56% of the American voters to back him. Condoleezza Rice and Colin
Powell will over the following weeks echo Bush and still not risk being
replaced by much cuter parrots. Paul Wolfowitz will at lest twice formulate
a convincing excuse for US military incompetence but each time Donald
Rumsfeld will confuse the issue and resort to confused ranting. Like: "The
probability that we certainly will overcome resistance in Iraq is probably
more uncertain than it was when we certainly thought that a probable cause
for uncertain probability was more probable than certain. Probably!" The
probability that Mr. Rumsfeld switches off his brain before opening his
mouth in 2004 will be 98%. Mr. Bush will not find the "on" switch next year
either and if he does he'll find it's connected to nothing.

The deregulation of
everything that limit eternal profits for major businesses will be speeded
up and federal schemes, supposed to benefit the citizens, that somehow don't
end up lining the pockets of industry, will be cunningly restructured.

Jobs
Only people who vote for the Republicans will be able to live on one job
only (the new voting machines know who they are!). But, BOY, how well some
of them will live!! New job opportunities for the lower classes will be
created by a concerned administration; such as doormats on uneven pavements,
targets at gun-ranges, stamp-lickers and Republican fan clubs.

Agriculture
Mad Cow Disease will be found in a lot of places once the control covers
every animal and not just one in a thousand. As a result beef, previously
containing too high levels of E. coli bacteria, will either 1) continue to
be sold to the public after the test results, as usual, are falsified (while
those who matter eat imported and tested beef) OR, possibly 2) treated with
depleted uranium and converted to artillery shells. The loss from beef
exports will be amply covered by the gain in exporting USMooh-grenades.

Or both! Alternative #1 is most likely.

Subsidies to agrobusiness
continues to rise at the same speed that quality plummets and farmers lose
their land to giant corporations.

The last independent farmer
in Iowa will be jailed for allowing a few of his sows to be raped by a
runaway boar from a Monsanto site and coming down with pre-slaughtered
turkeys.

Health
Good health and free medicines will be allowed for people above middle
manager level. Workers are supposed to endure in silence, and burden the
medical profession only when low turnover threatens profitability. And
obesity makes for great sales of expensive lose-weight pills!

Religion
While Christianity continues to be, officially and theoretically, the
dominant faith in the west, Mammon continues to gain followers since it is
believed that this god can be worshipped, in practice, simultaneously.

In 2004 this mistaken assumption will be held by 17.6% more people than the
year before!

CIA
New attempts to destabilize Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez will take place
but fail as the disgruntled local help is incompetent.

The administration, via the
CIA, will continue to fund, arm and support 73 dictators that are considered
"our kind of guy".

(The new rules allowing CIA
operatives to shoot anyone who looks suspicious or eat potato chips in movie
theaters can not be mentioned due to national security!)

Iraq
There's a 120% chance that insurgence, resistance and rebellion against the
occupation will continue (and grow) with every "heart and soul-winning"
effort from the coalition that involves indiscriminate bombing and
humiliating searches at 3.00 a.m.

A "democratic" new puppet
government will be installed in 2004 and will have to be protected from the
people for the foreseeable future as the electorate backing it will in
reality be the Bush neocons only. Risk for a civil war builds up and the
outbreak may come late 2004, timed to coincide with the American elections.

Saddam Trial
Saddam Hussein will definitely not receive a fair trial as defined by the
U.N. and most law-abiding nations. Reason: National Security. Meaning: Major
embarrassment. But he'll hang while his old US friends will not!!

Wars
One more oil-rich country will either be attacked by the US or suffer
preventive strikes and destabilization. Primary targets are Iran, Syria,
Norway, Somalia, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Most likely candidate is, however,
the Bahamas as the climate is very suitable, Americans know where it is
located and it's close to home. Oil can always be brought there and there's
always the good old "they are a threat to us, WMD etc".

Presidential elections
Mr. Bush will bag next year's elections following intense TV coverage of him
saving wounded American soldiers from evildoers in Iraq. The networks will
not mention it's all a fake staged at Camp David, and the approval rates
will reach 67%. To make reelection certain terror-alerts will occur just
before elections and if no attack takes place by itself, the reelection
committee will soon make sure it does. If Bush is reelected, his first bill
will be the repayment to his bribers and funders and an answer to corporate
America's prayers; trade unions will be declared illegal, unpatriotic and a
danger to national security! His second will be to introduce X-Mas five more
times a year to boost sales for his retail friends.

In the unlikely event, 30%
against 70% chance, that all Bush's conjuring tricks will fail and the war
on terror crumbles (Bin Laden goes public assuring 9-11 was all a silly
mistake), there is a possibility that Howard Dean might win. The American
public in general will see this as a major change. The world will see it as
"Bush light" taking over and many countries will anyway speed up their
efforts to get weapons of mass destruction because that's the only guarantee
against American aggression whoever the president might be.

The chance that a candidate
working for the people and not corporations will live in the White House in
2005 is less than 0.027%.

The Colonies
Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will finally assume the full
consequences of his politics and retitle himself Il Duce II.

Pakistan's dictator
Musharraf will fall victim to the 23rd rebel attack and be replaced by some
other military dictator willing to obey US dictates.

Tony Blair will have to
retire after overworking himself sucking up to the American president.

One more of the British
queen's corgis will fall victim to terrier attack by princess Anne's pitbull
Dotty. CIA and British Intelligence will again fail to predict or prevent
the attack.

Luxemburg will buy large
parts of Germany with all the money that rich Germans have stashed in its
banks to avoid taxation.

Major telecom companies all
over Europe will admit to falsifying records. Five will go bust and CEOs
will have disappeared together with 18-year old secretaries and 2.78 bn
Euro.

Intelligence levels in all
countries with commercial TV will continue to fall at a rate that boggles
the mind of those who don't watch TV.

"New Europe" will ask
itself where all the dollars are that Powell promised in small unmarked
bills to get support for the Iraq adventure. They might get their dollars
when the value falls a further 50% against the Euro.

Costa Rica will introduce
sharia law to protest against the worldwide war on everything Muslim. Will
be bombed to sanity five weeks later.

"Old Europe" will continue
dismantling its welfare systems and give tax cuts to companies and the
wealthy in a futile try to out-America the US. (Should it ever come close to
succeeding, the US will out-America itself by reintroducing slavery, burning
the constitution and abolishing education.)

Rule Britannia, the old
praise to British Empire, will finally be brought up to date and
appropriately retitled Fool Britannia in honor of the puppet regime of
Blair.

Bornholm, a little island
in the Baltic between Poland and Sweden, will declare its independence from
Denmark and introduce the first state ruled by Newton's law of gravity.

Global Forecast for 2004
and the future (that is bound to come true).

The inequalities will continue to grow between rich and poor, locally,
nationally and globally, and the widening gaps will continue to create
tensions, violence and terrorism, which the ruling classes everywhere will
refuse to understand, accept or do something about as long as they can
delude themselves that they, personally, are safe.

And Possibly...
A growing number of pessimists fear that only a victory for Osama bin
Laden's followers over the forces of McAmerican corporate dictatorship can
save the world from being sold to the highest bidder.

A growing number of
optimists searching for a peaceful and safe area will try to resettle in the
next galaxy.

Jerre Skog
is a Swedish writer, musician and independent observer living in Germany.
His writings, politics and satire, can be found on
www.skog.de and comments are welcome at
jerre@skog.de.